The most debated narrator in English literature. A twenty-year-old clergyman's daughter, educated but economically dependent, given absolute authority over two children by an employer who told her never to contact him. She is either a heroic woman fighting supernatural evil to protect innocent children, or a sexually repressed, psychologically unstable woman whose delusions destroy them. James makes both readings equally sustainable. Her narration is confident, elaborate, and self-justifying — qualities of either a clear-eyed witness or a sophisticated fabulist.